Belief
by Bleeding Heartgrenade
Summary: Belief is a dangerous thing sometimes. This is a short story, inspired by Dan Brown's book, Angels and Demons. Sometimes, we're just trying to justify our existence. I improved the explanation.
1. Chapter 1

Belief

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This is a short story inspired by Dan Brown's book, Demons and Angels. I wrote it as a response to a question a person asked me about the book. They asked me 'why don't people stop fighting, and work together?' If you haven't read the book, the basic plot is Religion (or rather, the Catholic Church) vs. Science. This was the impression I got after I read the book, and some of this stuff doesn't reflect my normal opinions, but I wrote it anyway. Some of the ideas belong to Dan Brown, not to me.

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Picture a room. The four walls, floor and ceiling are painted in the purest white. There are no windows or doors and a single candle glows from a bracket, hung in the ceiling, casting a yellowish beam on the walls and floor. No stain or blemish touches the fortifications of the white room. The room stretches wide, out in all direction, and into darkness, yet the walls are still white and pure in the darkness. This room is the Universe, unknown and never ending.

Two children are sitting beneath the candle in the tall ceiling. Their names are Faith and Logic, the images of religion and science, yet they are siblings. Both carry bags made of cloth, called Life Belongings, because they contain everything the children need in life. Logic stares outwards, into the blackness around him, wondering what is out there. Faith sits patiently, his eyes closed, praying silently that the little candle above him should never go out.

"To think, brother," Logic says abruptly, "that all this was formed in an explosion. The great Big Bang."

Faith opens an eye. Fury burns there. Then he speaks, carefully.

"This, brother, was all created by the Lord, my Shepherd." Faith says proudly. "Not by any _explosion_." He adds indignantly.

Logic glares at him, and demands proof of Faith's words. Faith grabs his bag, and produces his book of knowledge, from which he preaches to Logic, foretelling a fiery doom to come. Logic snatches the book out of Faith hands, and declares it obsolete. Faith swallows a retort, and demands proof of his brother's words.

Logic reveals a textbook, which he reads to Faith. Faith turns red in the face, and calls the book a lie. Logic tells Faith he has no proof of his beliefs. Faith yells that Logic's facts are based on guesswork, assumptions of fools.

Faith is generally a hesitant child, despite his name. Yet he argues fiercely now, his palms flat on the floor, his face inches from Logic's. They scream at each other, and bite and kick, rolling under the candle to which Faith prayed, and into the darkness, into which Logic stared. Their Life Belongings bags fly around their bodies, and out of them spews symbols and texts, words and scriptures.

Hear a gentle clink of glass, as Logic raises his bruised face and Faith turns a black eye, and together, they see something, glittering in the blackness around them. It is beautiful, ornate, the size of an orange. It sits in the glow of a second candle, high in the ceiling, and is made of shimmering glass. The light that hits it, parts, splits, and blazes in a vibrant rainbow. This ball is the world, in all its glory, wonderful, young and innocent.

The children reach out and take the ball together. They both stare in wonder at it in their hands. Then Logic speaks, his voice trembling.

"I have never seen anything like this before. I must study it! What will it teach me…?"

Faith growls and jerks the ball out of Logic's hands. He glowers at Logic.

"You will do no such thing, brother!" he cries. "This is a sign, and a candle has been put here, to guide me, me, the loyal servant! This belongs to me, and I shall care for it." Then he smiled peacefully at the scowling Logic. "But do not fret so, brother. Come, sit by my side, and watch the beauty of this gift to us."

Faith sits calmly down, and raises the ball over his head. The colourful light emitting from the ball grows brighter. Logic pauses, then sits, watching the light. Then, after a moment, he reaches inside his Life Belongings, and draws out a battered notebook and pen, and begins to write, glancing at the ball every now and then. Faith notices this, and grows annoyed.

"Why can't you just enjoy it?" Faith asks bitterly. "Why do you always have to spoil everything?"

Logic looks up. Faith is now cradling the ball in his arms, like a child. He glares at Logic, sitting there with his notebook.

"With you, everything has to have a reason, facts, and usefulness. Why cannot you love something for being there?" Faith demands, and there are tears in his eyes.

"I'm tired of being your signpost brother! You want to murder unborn children in the name of research that will save lives, and clone living creatures. And it is **I** that must direct you, point out the fallacy of your reasoning! How do you fail to see the divineness of that which you try to understand?"

Logic leaps up, his fist clenches, anger is on his face. He towers over his brother.

"Ha!" The arrogant laugh, full of sourness bounces away into the darkness.

"Who are you to talk?" Logic sneers. "You, my _dear_ brother, let people starve and die of diseases, and you will not let me help them. You say, _'My Lord will help them, my Shepherd will save them'_, but he **doesn't**!"

Logic spits on the white ground in rage.

"And you, my dear, my _ignorant_ brother, call them sinners, failures!" He points at Faith with a shaking finger. "You say they **deserve** death!"

Faith howls in rage, and jumps to his feet. His hand flashes in front Logic's face, leaving a stinging red slap mark on his sibling's cheek. Logic cries out, and tears form. He chokes, and glaring through his watery eyes, he grabs his brother's hair and pulls, hard. Faith yells, and kicks Logic's shins. Logic falls on top of Faith, and they collapse. Then a smashing sound rips the air.

The spun-glass world is lying shattered under the flickering candle. It fell during the fight. The glass glitters sharp and pointed on the white floor, stained orange in the candlelight. Faith and Logic stared horrified at the splintered ball. Then Logic jumps up from the floor and screams at Faith.

"**This is your fault!"**

Faith splutters in protest, indignation. He crawls slowly over the shards of the world, and picks a few up. Then he wails, and lurches forward, hiding his face. He begins to pray, feverishly.

"Go on." Logic grunts. "Pray to your invisible gods. Not that they'll hear you."

Faith stands up. He raises his eyes to the candle above him. When he speaks, his voice is firm, resolute.

"Brother, you say you want to help people, yet you do not want to talk to people. You want to heal people, yet you do not care for them. Every time I try to warn and guide you, you raise your voice in anger, calling me ignorant. Paranoid. Controlling! Your ideas spread like cancer!" Faith's voice rises.

"Behold science – the new Lord of endless miracles, omnipotent and benevolent! Ignore the chaos it creates! Ignore the weapons and hatred! Ignore the loneliness, the peril of evil!"

"But what about you?" demands Logic, as he stands, arms crossed. "You say your Shepherd fills you with love. Yet you act as though you hate everything. You show no compassion. Why do you preach love and mercy when you show neither? You tell me I must stop trying to understand my life, or I will perish. I must be on my knees all my life, and never question anything!"

Faith turns and hits Logic in the mouth. Blood peppers the white floor. Logic spits out blood, and wipes his mouth on the back of his hand. He smirks and then leaps forward, smashing his foot into Faith's stomach, and they fall, sliding into the darkness, screaming and lashing out at each other. Their misery is tangible, as they struggle with each other, trying to justify their existence.

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See now, that three children stand in shadows, watching the other two children fight. Two of these children hold hands, they are twins. Their names are Hope and Doubt. Hope stands silent, and Doubt talks constantly, trying to be rid of her fears. Hope speaks suddenly, her soft warm voice like a light in the gloom.

"Do not worry so, my sister." She comforts Doubt. "They will resolve their differences, and fix the world again."

"Will they? Will they really? How can they?" Fear is etched in Doubt's face, and she bites her bottom lip. "They hate each other; they are too different to work together."

Hope embraces Doubt, and whispers in her ear.

"Have faith in my judgement."

The other child, standing apart from Hope and Doubt snorts derisively. Hope glares at the child. The unnamed child turns and walks away through the gloom, watching Logic and Faith fight endlessly.

Her name is Atheist, and she, of all the children in this room, of which there are hundreds, hidden and unhidden, is content. She does not worry about death or life. She has no rules to live by, and does not change her mind for anyone. She smirks at the two brothers squabbling. Yes, Hope says the brothers can fix the world. But if they had never been there, the world would never have broken.

Atheist turns and vanishes into the blackness, leaving chaos behind. She only needs faith in herself. She entrusts herself with her life. Why entrust your life to anyone else?

Why indeed?

Fin

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Thanks for reading! If you wanna tell me your opinion, please do!


	2. An Afterthought

**An afterthought ****

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**

Hello to the person who is reading this. This is a short (and that may be a lie) explanation of my small story. First I suppose I should explain why I wrote it. I myself am a Christian, and I myself have faith in God.

Yet I read stories like 'Angels and Demons' and I realize how flawed as human beings we are. Not just as a Christian, who knows she is a sinner, but as a person, an individual, I know that. We are constantly arguing over how we must live, what we should do, and how everyone else is living and doing wrong. I hate that, and I know that is hypocritical, because I suspect I have told someone that they are doing something wrong recently.

I have heard on forums that the reason most atheists hate Christians, is that they are constantly met with a 'holier-than-thou' attitude. I really don't like that sort of attitude. It's disgusting. I read in a quote how Atheists don't have to love a god, but a fellow man instead. And you know what? That makes me really happy. And when I say that, I'm being sincere. If more people loved each other, the world would be a better place. I'm content with loving my God. If you don't like, don't want, don't need to be Christian, then don't be. Be happy, whatever you do in life; make sure it makes you happy. And it'll make me happy. I'm not going to preach to you, I'm just going to let you see the world through my eyes.

To the story, it is basically my view on religion after reading 'Angels and Demons'. I always thought 'Religion' was rather a vague term. What is Religion? The traditions? The beliefs? The words, the acts or the clothes? I also think there are always two sides to everything – the good and the bad. Then I suppose there's the grayish, emptyish, middleish bit. People often think one thing about religion because they've only seen one part of it. You need to see all of it before you decide about it. The characters in my story are quite stereotypical, I know. I've tried to put both sides of the argument into the story. The story is also done rather as though from the viewpoint of an outsider. I know that Atheists still have rules to live by, and that they probably still suffer the same feelings of discontent as the rest of us, but an outsider would probably see that the atheists were sitting back and watching the rest of us shout at each other, with an exasperated look on their faces. Sometimes I feel like shaking my head at those sort of Christians, though it feels like I'm shaking my head at myself.

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In the story, the two brothers are in the white room, representing the concept of religion and science in the universe. At first it is just the image of, thought, belief; Faith praying to that which helps him, Science wanting to understand and know his surrounding. The way he 'stares outwards, into the blackness' reminded me of the way scientists talk of going to outer space.

When Faith is questioned, or told he is wrong, he grows angry. Logic reacts in the same way. They fight, and as they do, they move out of the light. Faith forgets the candle, and his devotion to it. Logic forgets about wanting to know and understand the universe. They simply fight, and thus, their beliefs are meaningless.

Then they see the 'world', and it is beautiful, and they both desire to have it. Today, there are wars, protests, hatred, murder, arson attacks, beatings…the list goes on. Why do we have these things? Because some stupid idiots want to get the message across that they hate someone. Someone who's different. Different skin. Different Voice. Different religion.

Faith tries to follow his religion by inviting his brother to sit with him. When Logic gives in to his natural instinct of studying everything, Faith loses his patience easily, not a good trait for a loyal servant. Allow me to quote a bible verse, Romans, chapter 7, which discusses the human tendency to sin. St Paul says 'Yes, the good that I wish to do, I do not; but the evil I do not wish to do, I do.' In other words, Faith wishes to be kind and patient towards his brother, but instead he attacks and scorns him, like many Christians today.

Then they fight, and a lot of the arguments I wrote down are ones I have heard on this very site. As the brothers fight, it is the world fighting, and as I believe is inevitable, the world is destroyed. Yet they still fight, blaming one another. They could easily sit down, and try to fix it, but they don't.

Then three new characters appear: Hope, Doubt and Atheist. Hope and Doubt, to me, and simply observers, one an optimist, one a pessimist.

Though I believe God is my guide, and my path to happiness, I cannot help but think of the Atheist. She (in this case) is often viewed by people as the blind pessimist, with such a small mental capacity, that she cannot begin to think that there is such a wondrous thing as God. I find this view rather offensive, as my mom was raised as an Atheist. I often wonder what magnetic force drew her to God.

However, Atheists are people too, and I hope they never forget it. I like Atheists, because, they don't feel they have to live up to someone. They just have to live up to themselves. And that's good. Yet they have to stand on this earth and watch the rest of us fight. That's not fair.

Through this story, the children have labels, as do people. It's like; you're a 'Christian', or 'Atheist'. Maybe you're the 'English' person, or the 'Posh' person. In our lives we are labeled, and stamped. We do it on this site, but we choose our own labels.

I would hope that, no matter who we are, no matter what we believe, we can look in the mirror, and say to ourselves, 'The labels don't matter. My beliefs don't matter. My way of speaking, my skin, and the way I walk, my whole appearance, if I'm blind, or deaf or dumb, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that I'm me. That's what matters.'

Maybe, if we starting appreciating ourselves more, and started loving people a bit more, and stopped arguing and started listening, maybe we could fix up this broken world.

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I hope you understand this weird little (cough) explanation. If you don't understand anything about this story, review or email me, and I'll get back to you.

Praise and Flames, please review!


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